First trek

Its been ages since i blogged though there were too many things happening i didnt take time off to ramble. There were too many things happening in my life and one of it was my first CTC trek last weekend. It was an amazing experience an horrible one too (being the first time). One of my junior, ex-colleague was part of the trek, it really doesnt help much 'cos you tend to talk less & preserve energy for the trek. 

CTC is a recently founded organisation started by a trek enthusiast named Peter Van Geit. Mother nature loves this guy you could see that when you trek with him. A man with great stamina, climbs cliffs, crosses water stream, literally runs on dry stream filled with rocks as if on a plain surface and he does this with 1/10 of water, food i had during my first trek :). 

Nagala 23 was my first trek was the first trail even for CTC. I never knew that until late afternoon the first day when we ran out of water standing on top of the second moutain under hot sun. It was meant to be a 2 day trek and i was in wait list of 34 ppl who registered for the trek. The response for the trek is just mind boggling they got around 50 registrations with in just 2 days. I got in the last minute 'cos i agreed to take my car. It was only a 2hr drive from Chennai and drove through pickup points in Guindy & Koyembedu. We were advised to carry 4 litres of water since we wont be able to find any water stream during the first half of the trek, sleeping mat, one pair of dress. Man i sure took it lightly or never knew how it feels when there is no water. We rushed through the first mountain with ease and being my first trek i was eager to see whats ahead of us. Peter kept advising us to go easy on the water and providing us status with his little GPS gadget he had on his hand. In his own rough accent  'Make sure you finish of 1 bottle every 3 hrs mate, we wont be hitting a water stream till late in the afternoon...' 

'We have been walking for 1:30 mins and stopped for 1:46 mins' -  It looked as if this guy was providing us false status we never stopped for 1:46 mins. But in reality we were making stops often finishing of water, glucose... It was not a pleasant view it was an usual hot day inside some not so lush forest, didnt come across a single animal during the whole trek. On top of the first mountain i was already down in energy they showed us the second mountain that we were about to climb it was half burnt due to forest fire i guess.  By then i had almost completed my 2nd bottle. Downhill was relatively easy how can one not appreciate gravity but i was dehydrating a lot so started with my 3rd bottle of water. When we hit the bottom i was already searching for the s0-called water stream. Peter was leading us and i managed to keep up with him till the first mountain. I wanted to rest before i start the second climb. So i decided to stay back wait for the rest of the ppl to join. Apple never tasted so good. ah, enjoyed the last bit of it. There i got in touch with a new guy with no energy to talk we just showed signs 'shall we start' i gave a nod and than asked for another 5 mins. There was a sweeper in our set who being an experienced trekker was uncomfortable in letting us go but after gaining energy after the rest and apple, we said we will follow the dry stream and wait if there is a fork and unable to find the way. So he decided to let us go and we moved up hill. According to the master (Peter) it was a 3km climb and then down hill we hit another dry stream and just 300m from there is the water stream. Wow the thought of water was appealing, whatever you gained in life so far doesnt matter at that moment. Actually nothing matters when it comes to survival of the fittest. Ego, Money any tangible, intangible asset that you have earned, learned doesnt matter.
Having  a fit body, ability to swim, anything that has got to do with the survival matters a lot. So we start climbing the second mountain i got tired more easily than the first one...but managed to keep up resting a min or so often. It was getting steeper & steeper if only we had water my thoughts would have been filled with fear. Slippery & no shade it was a horrible sight on top of the second mountain. There i was sitting in the blazing sun left with no choice other than to follow the lead to the water stream. By that time i had completed half of my 4th bottle. I was asked to wait till the next set comes over show them way, i disagreed. Not able to bear the sun, i had to move on. The sight was awe-inspiring, it was dense with dry plants, thorns and no ledges or grip at all. Not a good sight esp when there is no water or energy.  Half way down like a four legged beast couldnt bear the weight of my back pack anymore. It was heavier than it was during the start of the trek with 4lts of water. Now with less than 1/2 a litre it weighed a tonne. An idea suddenly clicked and instantly i removed my bag off my shoulders and threw it down the mountain and managed to slide down the hill. And there we reached the bottom of the second mountain and with no water i convinced myself that it was only 300m. But 300m at that moment felt like i was a light year away from the water stream. By that time i had lost my water bottle during my down-slide. The best thing about the CTC is 'no-litter' policy, we had to carry our trash back with us.

We managed to cross the 300m and hit the water stream and the sight of water fall was beautiful during sunset. It was around 6:30 when we reached the water fall, 3 hrs behind Peter. The master must have been disappointed  not able to extend the trek. So he decided to extend the Nagala 22 trek (all ladies trek).  There was another group with all ladies following another trail in Nagala which is supposed to be our exit trail. By the time we took a dip in the pool near the waterfall there was sight of few ladies. There was lot of activities around ppl cooking maggi, soup. Few other demonstrating their diving capabilities in the pool. I was too tired for all that took my share of maggi and went off to take care of my sprained ankle and then dozed off...

So much for the entry trail...let me see if i can manage to write about my exit trail which was fun-filled when compared to the entry, with ladies joining us and the rain it could never get better. 

Tired after working continuosly for weeks am on comp off for almost a week this week. We dont have much work this week but its good to take sometime off and relax a bit. 

With all this crisis its hard to see people losing  jobs. it keeps me wondering, what would have happened if there wasnt an IT boom ? what would have been the situation? all the people would be working in manufacturing, automobile, fmcg. As usual govt jobs would have been preferred. But it was IT due to which we had more money coming in, i cant think of people buying cars, house at an early age. 

On the brighter side, this is much needed correction. Looking at where we are, i think this is the time to realise that we better improve on every aspect of work that we do. Working in creative industry is like working with conflicts and often i feel we just dont handle them well. These conflicts,  most of the time affects the quality of work we do. Hope this correction helps us grow stronger, create new jobs, grow mature and help improve ourselves not only in the work we do but also as an good individuals.

Oflate i make sure i dont skip my gym routine and it kind of feels good when you set a target and acheive it. Thought 65 kg would suit me better, but i still feel i look the same, decided to increase it to 70 kgs. Problem with increasing weight is controlling your tummy and tummy exercises are pathetic.  

My movie watching has taken a back seat due to my work, now that am low on tasks i miss my buddy very much. He has always been a better company for any movie. if i call myself a movie buff he is buff square. Not sure if i can find someone else who can fill in his position. 

Two things to work on in the forthcoming days. Weight & finishing a novel Fourth K.

Buried in neck deep of work for almost a month didnt get a chance to do my routine tasks. My new year resolution first time resolution has taken a beating, though i managed to stick to one resolution, wearing formals to office. I prefer to be in jeans & t-shirt. Its interesting how ppl judge others just by their looks. 

Me with considerable amount of experience look too young to be leading a team. Ok, i understand that i look young for my age but what do i do for the manufacturing defect. When some ppl would be happy to stay young, it comes with its own side effects. Esp when you climb up the org ladder.   It takes lot of patience & time to wait for ppl to break their frame of reference and accept the fact that i look young and older than them too. I could imagine this happening in a manufacturing industry but definitely not in IT. 

IT - the place where i realised that ppl do value one's capability and age or years of experience doesnt really matter to grow up in the organisation. After all these years of being shut down with "unakkum onnum theriyadhu, nee innum chinna payyan". But things are changing in IT  nowadays too much of freedom comes with a cost. Ppl are allowed to stay natural just because its a creative industry and requires ppl to stay at work most of the time. But somehow IT culture doesnt gel well with our tamil culture. For many reasons, here are a few

1) In IT organisations ppl can be open in passing on comments about once ideas as to why it makes sense or not. And in our culture ppl are not allowed to pass such comments about elders. 

2) Fast paced world in terms of money, change in life style, habits everything, while we have process (tradition) setup for each and everything. This eventually leads to widening of generation gap.

3) In my organisation that i work we call ppl by names, it was weird for me to get used to it but i stretched the limits too far and called my maama by his name and he was not happy about that. Taking habits from work to home is a bit too much, i realised then. In IT we have many such habits derived from western culture. Most of the clients we interact are from western countries and when ppl work closely with them, they are sure to catch hold of their habits.

4) With all the hike and ppl in IT doing financially well its causing a stir amongst common ppl. And IT ppl just couldnt manage it well, they go off flashing their costly mobile phones, ipods, etc. No wonder auto drivers demand twice the fare when i carry a shoulder bag which kind of looks like a laptop bag.

Looks like we are trying to catchup with the rest of the world in all aspects a bit too fast and we are facing the upshots of our own opinions & strong beleifs of our ancestors. 

aah, my first blog for the year. Thanks to my friend who was checking out on my blog status.

Success formula

Today is a beautiful day after a long chatting session woke up at 12:00 noon...Severly tired, was watching Da Vinci Code, after reading the novel the movie had no effect on me...

To my surprise my mom came with a newspaper supplement which had an article on 20 things to do to be successful...Its not that i havent known or read these success formula thingy...many of them would have...what surprised me more was my mom pointing this to me...All my childhood i have grown up with lots of constraints...

dont do this, dont do that...that is wrong...just do this...that kind of advice, just like any other typical parent from the 80's...i know there are few exceptions... 

Beyond a point me being me felt like i was living in a shell...wanted to break free...as any human i started reacting...and the result am a rebel...anything my parents advice me NOT to, thats the first thing i will end up doing...

And am happy that my mom pointed me this note from a newspaper...the kind of advice i would like to  hear from my parents...Have attached a pic of the same and its in tamil...

Immediate thought that comes to my mind after this incident is to follow it blindly...and thats what am going to do...

random thoughts

After a lot of comments, criticisms from my first blog am still alive to write my second blog...actually i had already written one which is in my draft folder but cudnt finish it...laziness, but it was raining all day...sounds silly, eh...this blog that am writing today was triggered by few of the comments from my friends...

try to reduce the dots (...) was one comment...am not sure why am using this dots, but i used to use it even while writing personal emails...may be it gives an impression of thoughts flowing from my head to hands to blogosphere...

creativity strikes me 2:30 am in the morning after i shut down my PC...i wud have published it earlier this mornin...series of thoughts popping up in my head early in the morning, was thinking how it would be if someone invented a thought reader to scan my thoughts and store it in my PC...i wake up the next morning or whenever i have time, make a couple of edits here & there...voila, i have it another blog...ur own thoughts in its purest form...may be someone has invented something like that already...otherwise it wud be nice to have a gadget like that...hmm, i wud like to own it before my enthusiasm for blogging dies...

one of my friend complaints that i deviate too much from what i intend to write...good comment...but what if that itself is how second generation blogosphere would look like...at that instance, i started visualizing the future of blogs...

what if blogs are true expression of ones thoughts...wouldnt be good to explore one of ur close ones thoughts...let me walk u thru the future of blogosphere, 

1) start thinking about something

2) think of the samething from an different view...and that something will mean different now...add more views till u realise that u have deviated a lot from what u had intended to think or blog initially...atleast thats how my eccentric brain works...

3) try to link ur chain of thoughts by links...weak & strong, strong indicating what u originally intended to convey and weak links indicating the other random thoughts that occured to u or that were hindering ur original thoughts...

4) now imagine the whole thing like a sphere, with the original thought in the centre and other thoughts connected to it and arranged in a spherical layout. It doesnt have to be spherical, just that it shdnt have any boundary like google maps...

5) and u have something what i wud like to call the thought-sphere which is nothing less than the reflection of ur brain...anybody can start from any thought and follow the links (strong or weak) and read the chain of thoughts and still would be able make sense out of it...

isnt that wonderful...i feel like am going to revolutionize this blog world...for those who understood this concept, ur comments are welcome...wait, there is more...am planning todo a picture about this concept...so keep checking my blog now & then...

P.S - Shd i file a patent for this? i even have few names for the concept thoughtsphere, brainpuke

hmm...that was easy

Well this is my first blog site...there were failed attempts in launching a site twice earlier, both were a fiasco...and here i am with the help of blogosphere launched my first ever blog site in minutes...though i had a tough time choosing a name for my blog...i finally have one up and running...

let me start with the name...i recently got in to the habit of naming the buddy non living things that i use to get past my monotonous life a day at a time...yeah, u got it rite, just like the way Rajini used to call his taxi lakshmi in some movie(lakshmi start ayidu...does it ring any bell)... dont get me wrong here, am no way a Rajini fan...but used to like his old movies like thillu mullu, padikathavan, velaikaran...ok, lets not digress...hey am getting used to writing now...am i?

newton...he he he...not the "every action as an equal reaction" newton...not so famous but good looking actor thandie newton...i named my car after watching "Pursuit of Happyness"...not her best looks in the movie...but trust me she is hot...thats for the first half of the name newton-drift...

myself and my ceo friend (Anand) used to go on loooooong un-planned road trips often...it started early this year...skipping lots of details for the sake of the topic, used to discuss & drive (ah! sounds like drink & drive)...yeah discuss...we used to discuss lots of things...his problems, my problems, parenting, pets, gals, career, religion, country, friends, what not...though i wasnt able to provide a solution for his problems (which i honestly beleive no one can) i was able to revive him from his crisis...which i am now  proud of...not sure, what he might be thinking when he reads this...

so each time we go on this unplanned trip we drift away from our normal life with newton...hence the name newton-drift...:p

P.S-dont try to track me down in the intent of hitting me after reading this blog...Revathi - she is the sole reason for me to start such a crappy thing(p.p.s - we havent met, just got to read her blog and here i am)...honestly, am not even sure if i will get my second blog posted successfully...

Thanks for visiting...